Ernie Elliott

Ernest Elliott
Elliott commemorated on an older Woodvale mural, subsequently replaced by the current one following house demolition
Born	1943/1944
Died	6 December 1972 (aged 28) Northern Ireland
Cause of death	Homicide
Nationality	British
Other names	"Ernie", "Duke"
Occupation	Northern Irish loyalist activist
Known for	Leading member of the Ulster Defence Association

Ernest "Ernie" Elliott (1943/1944 – 6 December 1972), nicknamed "Duke", was a Northern Irish loyalist activist and a leading member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during its early days. Unusually for the generally right-wing UDA, Elliott expressed admiration for socialism and communism, and frequently quoted the words of Che Guevara and Karl Marx. Elliott was eventually killed by a fellow UDA member following a drunken brawl, although his death was variously blamed on republicans and a rival faction within the UDA.

A native of Leopold Street close to the Crumlin Road in the Woodvale area, a district of Belfast adjacent to the Shankill Road, Elliott was involved in the formation of the vigilante group the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) in early 1971. He was appointed as lieutenant to the WDA's deputy leader Davy Fogel, a close drinking buddy. Elliott, a short but stockily built man, was a notorious "hard man" on the Shankill who was used to meting out physical violence. He became commander of the WDA (which retained an independent existence for a time despite its incorporation into the UDA) in 1972 while Charles Harding Smith was detained in London on gun-running charges, holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

At the time the leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) Gusty Spence had begun to develop ideas that loyalism should move to a more left-wing position after discussions with Official IRA members in Crumlin Road Gaol. Spence's ideas were rejected by many within the UVF but some who had been in prison with him took the ideas on board. Some of these Shankill UVF men were friends of Elliott and when they discussed their ideas with him he became impressed. Before long Elliott had become enamoured of Marxism and sought to apply its theories to the "loyalist struggle". In fact Elliott and Davy Fogel had held meetings with the Official Irish Republican Army in both Dublin and Belfast in an attempt to seek common ground and explore the possibility of reaching what Fogel described as "a working-class accommodation with our Catholic neighbours". They also met representatives of the British and Irish Communist Organisation which at the time was going through a strongly anti-republican and pro-unionist phase.